Once a Legalist

By B. E. Junkins

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     We assume that people live legalistic lives for a lot of reasons. Maybe they were born into a legalistic family. Maybe they were converted by a legalistic church--or preacher. Maybe they were prompted by their insecurity to search out some rigidly structured system of religion. At any rate, we have found by experience that legalism is a difficult disease to root out.

     People refuse to budge from legalistic systems because of fear. Legalists usually teach a rigid system of rewards and punishments based upon an external performance of rites and the unfailing observance of the specifically stated demands of an inviolable moral code. Like the Pharisaic interpretation of the Mosaic Law, the systems of the legalists are filled with "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots." When a convert enters the system, he is immediately apprized of what he can and cannot do on pain of God's withdrawal and the threat of hell fire.

     God is pictured as a petulant despot whose feelings are so sensitive that he takes offense at the slightest deviation from his expectations. Great wrath, revenge, and eternal punishment of indescribable horror are his weapons, according to the legalist. So fear becomes the goad that drives the convert deeper and deeper into a system that offers only neurotic rewards.

     The reward system of the legalist is so structured as to appeal to the neurotically inclined. While heaven is a beautiful and real concept, we find repugnant the appeal to "conform so you can go to heaven." It is a blatant bribe and selfishly claimed by the legalist. We feel that many people are converted to heaven instead of to Jesus, and that if there were any other, easier way of getting there, they would quickly desert him. He is being exploited to fulfill the selfish desire to attain a heavenly reward.

     Another reward of the legalist is the pride that is conferred upon all of the "rich young rulers" who have done their duty and kept all of the commandments from their youth up. A certain amount of satisfaction is inherent in a job well done. But to elevate one's self above one's fellows as a result of having performed one's legal obligations more scrupulously seems to leave something significant to be desired. The "we are right" syndrome has a history of crucifying people, burning them at the stake, and assassinating their characters.

     The legalist finds an uncomfortable crutch in his system. He always has his decisions made for him. He never has to wonder if he acted responsibly, maturely, and lovingly. He has only to read the "code" to find out what he should do. It is a standard of minimums. He has no responsibility beyond the stated dictums of his code. Of course he lives in mortal dread of having failed to keep one of the thousands of laws which hedge him about. When he does violate one of them, he has still another to hie him to a prayer and penitence form that delivers him from the penalty of his act.

     Little or nothing is said about a relationship with Jesus. He simple "does" what is required. Little or no grace is expected. After all, the legalist is earning his grace by "doing" whatever is required of him. Like the Catholic doctrine of extreme unction, the "earned grace" of the legalist puts God in the

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position of having to do what the manipulating practitioner wants, or so he seems to think. On the surface, then, it is a crutch, but it works out to be a worrisome snare, causing constant anxiety.

     The legalist finds judgment essential to his system. He must judge himself. He must be constantly under the judgment of God. And he finds judging others a natural concomitant of his philosophy. When a legalist does reach out to accept deliverance from the unlovely system that crucifies him, he more often than not begins by hardening the principles of love, freedom, and grace, into a whole new set of laws. Jesus died to free us from sin, the strength of the law; to nail the philosophy of law to the cross, and to teach us the meaning of love and grace. Maybe we need to begin dealing with fear, rewards, crutches, and law. These seem to be the nails that keep the legalist secured to his cross.

     Editor's Note. The above appeared in The Mission Bay Christian, May 12, 1971. The mailing address is 2437 Yolanda Place, San Diego, California 92123.